Lanzarote & Museo Atlántico · Spain · Artificial reef
El Emisario / Twin Pipes
Outfall pipes standing as the only structure on an open platform
Area photo: Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
The enormous tubes of an underwater outfall lie on an otherwise open platform off Playa Blanca, and in a landscape with little other structure they have become the refuge that makes the dive worth doing. Maximum depth is 18 metres. Moray eels, sardines and angel sharks are the species the contrast between rock and sand turns up here.
Also known as El Emisario, Twin Pipes.
Where it is and how deep
28.8550° N, 13.8234° WPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive is built around the pipes. They are the tubes of an underwater emissary, lying across the vastness of the platform with little else around them to break the bottom, and they are what everything here collects on. Maximum depth is 18 metres, so the profile is flat and a single tank gives a long, unhurried look at the structure.
The pipes work as an artificial reef, and the interest is the contrast between hard structure and the open ground around it: moray eels, sardines and angel sharks are the species recorded on the site. It is a frequented dive rather than a remote one, and the simplicity is the point, with one feature to follow out and back and a bare bottom either side of it that shows up anything lying on it.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good |
Season follows Lanzarote & Museo Atlántico: Divable all year in 18–24°C water; Jun–Oct is warmest and calmest, and angel sharks are most reliably seen Nov–Mar.
Questions divers ask
What is El Emisario in Lanzarote?+
It is a dive on the large tubes of an underwater outfall off Playa Blanca. They lie on an otherwise open platform and act as the site's only real structure, which is why life concentrates on them.
Sources
- El Emisario / Twin Pipes dive site — Scubago
More dive sites in Lanzarote & Museo Atlántico
Artificial reef
A dive that starts at a submerged boat and runs to 40 m
A short swim-through entered at 26 m, exiting at 18 m
Reef
Shore-entry reef at 7-8 m, the local beginner and refresher dive
Reef
Black coral forest and gorgonia between 40 and 85 m
Reef
Lava formations stepping from 12 m to a 45 m bottom
Cave & cavern
A cave full of narwhal shrimp on a wall with a 40 m foot
Artificial reef
Europe's first underwater museum, opened in January 2017
Wall
A branch of orange coral inside a cave at the end of the wall
Similar dives elsewhere
A broken wartime hull at 12 m that the reef fish have taken over
Motorbike frames and concrete set on a sandy slope at 15 metres
A 2.5 m bronze Christ standing on the seabed at 17 m
A decade-old tyre reef, grown in and dived after dark too